This map is actually a piece of the larger, world map I came up with first (because I needed climate zones). If you like, you can see the full world map here (http://aminoan.deviantart.com/art/Climateworld-378218612). To make this map, I basically copied and pasted a section of the world map into a new document. (If you're wondering, it's the easternmost continent's southern hemispherical section, the bit with the peninsula)

Scale is about 1224 km by 932 km

55419

As you can tell, it's really, really rough. So far I have the mountains, hills, and a few rivers figured out (i'll probably add more water bodies later). The varying shades of green denote what kind of climate it is... olive green is the mediterranean, dark green is forest (climate is apparently like Britain), darkest green is the coniferous forest... I'm 90% certain that as it's the taiga climate zone, it's not that green, but currently I just blocked out the climates. White, as you can probably infer, are the ice caps/tundra. To the other side of the mountains I have the coniferous forests (light green) and deciduous forests/grassland (darker olive green).

Now I've got two problems: Are these rivers realistic? I've been reading the tutorials, but I'm still not entirely sure.
What sort of climate can I expect as I go up the face of the mountains? Would it be mediterranean all the way, or would it change to coniferous forests? I'm stumped, but I'll keep looking around at resources.

Thanks for any tips and tricks you guys can offer! :)

aminowrimo

06-17-2013, 01:28 PM

After a lot of fiddling I decided on this style for the map... here are the mountains all drawn in. I'll probably add more once I get a few hills drawn.

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Meshon

06-17-2013, 06:53 PM

I'm impressed that you started with climate zones, that sort of ground-work can really help your world take shape. I'm not an expert, but I'd guess climate changes up and over your mountains would be very dependent on how high (and how old) the mountains are. Based on what you've provided they look tall and craggy. Did you hand-draw all the mountains? This is looking good, I'm hoping to see more soon.

cheers,
Meshon

aminowrimo

06-17-2013, 07:27 PM

I have The Planet Construction Kit and since I wasn't sure where the culture would be placed to begin with (I wanted a temperate zone), I just started with the world map, and then, because I'm trying to be realistic, did the climate zones. It's simpler, to my mind, to have them than to not have them, if that makes sense.

The mountains on this particular continent are either not high enough to provide a rainshadow, or the winds are being weird. I'm not sure. At any rate, based on my interpretation of the PCK's semi-detailed instructions, the climate zones are correct enough to make me happy.

I did hand-draw the mountains... first I tried doing some sort of satellite thing (that didn't work, it felt messy, probably because I didn't seek out a tutorial to do it efficiently), then I tried creating a mountain brush, only to realize I didn't like it enough to keep. So, hand-drawn mountains. :)

foremost

06-17-2013, 08:28 PM

Those look like some incredibly steep mountains! Perhaps you mean for them to just be icons representing mountains (in that case it'd be fine), but as they are, it looks sort of strange. You'd think mountains would almost always be wider than they are tall.

The climate-zones make sense, because of the mountains causing rainfall on one side, so nice job on that.

Viking

06-17-2013, 11:18 PM

To answer an earlier question: your rivers look alright. None go through mountains or anything :p When in doubt it never hurts to check nature's examples :) Keep in mind by the time they get to a mountain slope they are significantly reduced in size. Overall I like the direction your map has and that you have considered climate and rain shielding! Consider widening your mountains. If it is in photoshop take the layer and use the transform tool to widen them (ctrl t). That said mountains can definitely have very sheer and steep slopes like the matterhorn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matterhorn) for example.

aminowrimo

06-19-2013, 08:10 PM

I widened the mountains as Viking and foremost suggested (and I think it looks a lot better this way, so thank you!) Also drew the hills using this (http://www.cartographersguild.com/tutorials-how/11322-award-winner-hand-drawn-hills-quick-tutorial.html) great tutorial. Added some rivers (i'll add more later)-- since the mountain range has changed from the first version I decided to redo the rivers. Their style may change, but I think that these, at least, will stay where they are, though I will probably add some more tributary rivers to them.

55525

As always, please let me know what I can fix or do better!

Meshon

06-20-2013, 12:18 AM

The hills and mountains look very good! I noticed that the coast is really... blocky. Are you able to smooth it out easily? This is an enlarged section of a bigger map, right? Keep it going, this is going to be great.

cheers,
Meshon

aminowrimo

06-20-2013, 12:35 AM

Thanks! I see what you mean by blocky, but what do you mean by smoothing it out easily? It is an enlarged section of a bigger map. I could always run a noise filter over it and then make the coastline more random and less blocky... I just forgot to do it before. Is that what you meant?

And I shall keep it going, definitely!

- Max -

06-20-2013, 04:30 AM

The coastline looks too pixellated as it is for now in my opinuon and you want to set mountains and hills at the same opacity/style to make it consistent on your map ;)

Meshon

06-20-2013, 01:12 PM

I could always run a noise filter over it and then make the coastline more random and less blocky... I just forgot to do it before. Is that what you meant?
Yeah pretty much :) I just wasn't sure what kind of tools you have at your disposal and it sounds like you've got all you need. A blur might work, followed by threshold adjustment, or noise, or even hand-drawing. Are you working in Photoshop?

cheers,
Meshon

aminowrimo

06-20-2013, 02:39 PM

Yeah pretty much :) I just wasn't sure what kind of tools you have at your disposal and it sounds like you've got all you need. A blur might work, followed by threshold adjustment, or noise, or even hand-drawing. Are you working in Photoshop?

I'm working with GIMP, but I can usually figure out how to duplicate some Photoshop effect. The way I've been doing it is Filters > Noise > Pick then Gaussian Blur at 3.0 or so then Threshold Adjustment. It works well at non-huge sizes. XD

aminowrimo

06-22-2013, 06:52 PM

55562

Done adding the rivers, though I'd like more fresh water in the peninsula. Any idea how I could get that over there?

As you can see I'm trying to change the mountains to match the style of the hills, though as they're all on one layer it's taking a while. :)

Viking

06-22-2013, 08:21 PM

Nice changes you've made! I can't recall a peninsula with a river down the middle but maybe it could be like a delta. That would allow you to get more fresh water in there. Perhaps something like this?
55564 I added the hills to justify the odd route for the river. You could also add a lake somewhere.

aminowrimo

06-22-2013, 10:16 PM

Thanks, Viking, for that! However, I've got polar ice right to the south of the southernmost mountain (shown in white):
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I'm pretty sure the river wouldn't continue to flow in that case.

Viking

06-22-2013, 11:31 PM

lol no maybe not. That said, many streams do form from glacier melt water. If the glacier is stable (not receding or growing) it is just melting at the same rate it is being formed at.

aminowrimo

06-23-2013, 07:27 PM

So what you're saying is I could keep that river you drew without being unrealistic?

Viking

06-23-2013, 11:18 PM

Possibly yes, though you'd want to significantly reduce the width or size of the river lol. You wouldn't necessarily see a river on a glacier or anything either but glaciers do have tiny streams running through them at times if there is enough melting going on. What may happen is a number of these tiny streams coming out of the glaciered up area would eventually form a significant river. You could possibly have the portion of that river from the south be more full of water in summer months and dwindle in size and flow significantly in winter months.
Check out melt water (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltwater)

WillP

06-23-2013, 11:45 PM

Glaciers also may have rivers flowing below them, but I don't know how stable those may be.

Schwarzkreuz

06-25-2013, 08:56 PM

Very fast pace learning curve here, Amino. Its interesting to watch the Progress here.
I agree that there are rivers still in frozen zones, shifting with the seasons

Whats the Purpose of your World?

aminowrimo

06-26-2013, 09:53 AM

I'm in the middle of a lot of things, so researching and drawing the rivers/glaciers is going slowly. But it's always in the back of my mind!

Very fast pace learning curve here, Amino. Its interesting to watch the Progress here.
I agree that there are rivers still in frozen zones, shifting with the seasons

Whats the Purpose of your World?

Thanks! The purpose of the world is basically to furnish a place for my stories, whatever they may be. I'm not sure if there's something beyond that.

aminowrimo

07-01-2013, 12:27 PM

Hi! I haven't forgotten about this... I'm just extraordinarily busy right now. :) At the very latest, I'll be back after the 21st of July to keep adding to this map.